The inventive concepts described herein relate to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly, relate to a nonvolatile memory device, a nonvolatile memory system, and a programming method thereof.
Semiconductor memory devices may be volatile and nonvolatile. The volatile semiconductor memory devices may perform read and write operations at high speed, while contents stored therein may be lost at power-off. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices may retain contents stored therein even at power-off. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices may be used to store contents which must be retained regardless of whether they are powered.
The nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices may include a mask read-only memory (MROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), and the like.
A flash memory device may represent a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device. The flash memory device may be widely used as a voice and image data storing medium for information appliances such as a computer, a cellular phone, a PDA, a digital camera, a camcorder, a voice recorder, an MP3 player, a handheld PC, a game machine, a facsimile, a scanner, a printer, and the like.
In recent years, a semiconductor memory device having memory cells stacked in three dimensions have been researched to improve the integrity of the semiconductor memory device.